With Jim Schlossnagle leaving Texas A&M to become the new head coach at Texas, the Aggies are in search of a new head coach. 

And Tennessee Vols head coach Tony Vitello has already been listed as a potential candidate by Baseball America. 

Vitello served as an assistant at TCU under Jim Schlossnagle from 2011 to 2013, so the thinking is that the Tennessee head coach could provide some continuity for the Texas A&M program. 

From Baseball America: Another popular rumor has Vitello trading one UT for the other. Losing him wouldn’t constitute quite the same level of crisis as losing Schlossnagle would for A&M, but it wouldn’t be a pleasant experience for athletic director Danny White. Vitello has revived Tennessee, is playing for a national title and has been to Omaha as many times in the last four years as his two predecessors made it to Hoover in the decade before he arrived.

Vitello was an assistant coach at TCU under Schlossnagle, overlapping with Del Conte’s tenure. Those Texas ties, his recruiting prowess and the growth of the Tennessee program under his watch all make for a pretty attractive package. But he has an incredible thing going at Tennessee. Pulling Vitello out of Knoxville won’t be easy.

It's not a surprise to see Vitello's name mentioned in regards to the Texas A&M job. Vitello, after all, is one of the hottest names in the nation after leading Tennessee to its first national championship earlier this week. And Texas A&M is a program with plenty of money to spend. They'd be foolish to not at least give Vitello a call. 

But do Vols fans really need to worry about Vitello leaving for College Station? 

Before I get to what I think that answer is, take a look at this quote from Vitello from shortly after Tennessee won the College World Series. 

"Tennessee came calling (in 2017) and I knew a little bit about it," said Vitello. "I knew it had those ingredients. But I’ve been blown away by how friendly everybody is, how involved everybody is. And loyalty is a very important word to everybody, but especially to an Italian fella. And I don’t know that there’s a more loyal fan base and really just community when you’re in that state (Tennessee)."

And also this quote from Tennessee's national championship celebration on Tuesday. 

"I hate to single out one person, because this state is unquestionably about unity, this university is about unity, Knoxville is about unity," said Vitello. "And the best representation I’ve ever seen in my life of unity is the group that’s on this stage right now, for sure."

Loyalty and unity are obviously words that are important to Vitello. And he's demonstrated that those words are important by his actions since he took over at Tennessee. 

When Vitello arrived at Tennessee, he knew it would be tough to build the culture that he wanted to build — it's always tough to start from scratch. But he built what he was looking to build. It took time, and things got interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Vitello executed his vision. And on Monday night, he and his players and his staff were able to reap the rewards of all the hard work that went into building the UT baseball program over the last seven years. 

Vitello has support at Tennessee. And not just from the administration, but from every other sport on campus (just ask Rick Barnes and Josh Heupel). He has money (I'm sure his new contract will have plenty of zeroes). He has the ability to land any player in the nation that he wants. And he can obviously win a natty on Rocky Top. 

Why would Vitello want to leave that to start over? 

Anything is possible in sports. Anyone can leave for any job at any time. But the idea of Vitello leaving the program he's turned into a juggernaut seems preposterous – -especially after all he's accomplished at Tennessee (not just wins, but stadium upgrades, etc). 

You never say never, but I can't see a scenario where Vitello ditches Knoxville for College Station. Tony V might be from St. Louis, but he's as Tennessee as it gets these days. 

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